


keeps me in pursuit, sharpen the heel of your boot

by macerrs



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-30
Updated: 2012-07-30
Packaged: 2017-11-11 01:24:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/472903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macerrs/pseuds/macerrs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>modern AU.  zuko goes out with azula, ty lee, and mai to get drunk one night and ends up running into katara.  hijinks ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	keeps me in pursuit, sharpen the heel of your boot

Zuko was never much of a partier, but when Azula said, “We’re going out and we’re getting  drunk ,” in that slippery hard voice of hers, it meant he was going to go out and get hammered.     
  
They’d already been to three bars.  He’d unsuccessfully tried to hit on one particular girl at the last bar, his courage at an all-time high because he was properly buzzed (Azula did not fuck around when she said they were getting  drunk ) - but beginning with “Hi, Zuko here!” wasn’t a cute look when you were actually nineteen years old and not fifteen.  Azula smirked at his failure from across the bar, where she was doing jagerbombs with Ty Lee.  Mai stood near the two girls, cradling a Corona while she mocked Azula for not being able to hold her own against Ty Lee.  Ty Lee giggled as she downed another jagerbomb, but Mai pointedly looked past her to Zuko, staring at him with an even expression.  They’d broken up about a month ago and although it was technically a mutual breakup, there was still an uneasy tension between the both of them.  Watching each other try to hook up with other people wasn’t the best way to go about making the tension disappear, but Zuko wasn’t thinking clearly at the moment.  He wasn’t really thinking at all.     
  
They all ended up in a line for a club down the street.  But Azula pushed herself to the front, carelessly tugging on Ty Lee’s arm (that public display of affection undoubtedly a result of the jagers), with Mai and Zuko reluctantly following behind.     
  
“My name is Azula.  A-Z-U-L-A.  My name won’t be on your list but you’re going to let me and my friends in despite that fact because if you don’t, I will cut your throat in broad daylight and you’ll never know when it’ll happen, but it will - one day - and I’ll be the one letting your blood drip on the ground.”  She gave the bouncer what she considered one of her more winning smiles.     
  
“I --” The bouncer started, but Ty Lee cut him off.  “What my friend meant to say is that we’re girls and you need more girls in your club and did you know that I can do acrobatics?  I’ll show you inside!  Oh and that boy [pointing to Zuko] is with us, thank you!”  She gave the bouncer a kiss on the cheek and grabbed both Azula and Mai’s hands, pulling them inside.  Zuko nervously laughed at the bouncer as he walked into the club behind the three girls, saying, “I’m not laughing at you, I’m just....excited?”   
  
  
\--   
  
  
They separated up as they entered the club, Ty Lee pulling Azula to the dancefloor and Mai avoiding Ty Lee’s efforts by walking to the bathroom.  Zuko stood awkwardly towards the club’s entrance, not sure where to go now that they were actually inside.  His head was aching and for a moment, he thought maybe he should catch a cab and head back home, but then he spotted an empty corner at the bar and jostled his way over, making the decision that alcohol would be a better cure.     
  
As he was about to sit down, a hand covered the seat.  “Someone is sitting there.”    
  
Being drunk didn’t usually make Zuko an asshole, but he surprised himself.  “I don’t see anyone physically sitting in the seat, so I don’t agree with your statement.”   
  
Two blue eyes looked at him in annoyance.  “Are you kidding me?  I’m saving the seat for my friend, who’s dancing -- wait, Zuko?”   
  
Zuko bent forward.  “Katara?”  As a means of a greeting, he inexplicably licked her cheek, exclaiming, “Katara!”   
  
“You’re drunk,” she replied evenly, wiping his spit off of her cheek with the back of her hand.   
  
“A little!  How are you doing?  It’s been so long since I’ve--”   
  
“Creepily followed us around the world looking for Aang and your honor?”   
  
He gave her what he hoped to be a ‘Oh me!’ type of grin.  “I know.  Oops?”   
  
Katara looked at him blankly.  “Oops?”     
  
“I mean...sorry?”  Zuko realized that this reunion was going all wrong.  He leaned in to her and asked, “Hey, do you want a drink?”    
  
  
\--   
  
  
“Come with me to the bathroom.”   
  
Zuko had been twirling his drink in his hand while they had been talking, but now he looked up at her, perplexed. “Why?  Do you need help with something?”   
  
Katara had already stood up and had both her hands on the bar to steady herself.  She turned away from him and laughed to herself.  “Yes, Zuko, I need some help.”   
  
“It’d be my honor,” Zuko said reverently, clasping a hand to his chest.   
  
“Would you  shut up about your honor?” said Katara as she pulled on his arm, making Zuko stand up.  He leaned against her for support, because apparently sitting for an hour and downing drink after drink made him a bit  unbalanced .  For some reason, Katara didn’t look drunk at all, though.     
  
  
\--   
  
  
The bathroom was one of those single room toilets with no stalls.  Somehow Katara managed to push herself up in line, grasping Zuko’s hand.  To those grumbling at them for cutting the line, she said, “I’m about to throw up, do you want me to do it on you or in a toilet?”  She gagged for good measure and all those in line backed away from her, including Zuko.     
  
“What are you doing?” she asked him, frowning at his confusion.     
  
“Are you really going to be sick?”  He asked partly from real concern about Katara’s health but mostly from not wanting to get his new shoes ruined from vomit.   
  
She rolled her eyes at him and grabbed his hand again.  “Get into the toilet, Zuko.”   
  
“Alright, you don’t have to be so harsh about it, I’m just worried about --”   
  
Katara slammed the door shut behind him and pressed into him, letting her hand that held his stay resting against the door, while she stood on her toes to kiss him.  Zuko started for a moment but then eased into the kiss.  They stood there, kissing close-mouthed for a few seconds, until Katara moved her hand up to his face, touching his mouth lightly and then moving her hand back, splaying her fingers out into his hair, trying to hold him in place as she moved in for another kiss.  Zuko didn’t quite get how they’d gotten at this point, from drinking to talking to vomiting to kissing.  But he let Katara dip her tongue into his mouth and they stood there, kissing languidly - Zuko let his hand drop down to her waist and pulled her into him even more than before.  They were so close now that even the atoms or molecules or....Zuko wasn’t sure, he never paid attention to science, but they were standing too close now.  He moved his head back slightly.     
  
“What is going on?”     
  
Katara cocked her head.  “What’s happening right now is that I’m going to have sex with you in this bathroom.”   
  
“I--”   
  
“--Don’t know why, actually,” she continued, talking mostly to herself as she undid the buttons on Zuko’s pants and pulled them down.  “This is probably a terrible decision, but I think that is what is going to happen now.”  She looked up at him now, his pants off and her dress pulled up.  “Is that alright with you, Zuko?”  She asked the question softly, so he could feel her lips move against his ear, feel the vibrations of her voice right in his chest.  She was almost unbearably close.  Yet.   
  
“Yeah.  Yeah.”  Zuko repeated himself. ‘It sounds like you’re stuttering,’ he thought to himself.  Outloud, he said.  “It’s good.”   
  
Katara smiled.  “Good.”   
  
  
\--   
  
  
“Are you seriously telling me you can’t get it up?”   
  
“Um...”   
  
“ZUKO.”   
  
“I don’t know!  Maybe?”     
  
“ This is why my brother said not to get involved with Firebenders, I swear to--”   
  
“You and your brother talk about erectile dysfunction?  Which I do  not  suffer from, by the way, but you two talk about  this ?  That’s a bit sick.”    
  
“No!  What?”   
  
“ That’s your reason for not getting involved with Firebenders?  Not the fact that we destroyed entire civilizations and peoples but that we may suffer from erectile dysfunction, which, again, I do not have at  all ?”   
  
“Excuse me, I’m not the one who almost made out with my own  sister .”   
  
“That was a one time thing!  Her hair was down, she looked different, I was drunk!”   
  
“I can’t believe I was almost going to have sex with you.”   
  
“What do you mean, almost?”   
  
“Well, it’s not happening now because you sort of can’t. Get. It. Up.”     
  
“Oh.  Right.”     
  
“Yeah, you dumbass.”     
  
“You don’t need to use that kind of language--”  
  
“Why?  Are you too  sensitive , Zuko?  Are you going to cry on Azula’s shoulder now and then eat her out to make yourself feel like a dude with testicles?”   
  
“What?  When did you hear about that--”   
  
“I’m leaving.”   
  
“No, but seriously why did you say ‘testicles’ and not ‘balls’ like a normal person, Katara, what the fuck.  Just because you’re a healer you think you’re a doctor--”   
  
“Zuko, I am fucking leaving.”   
  
“You keep saying that.”    
  
“I’m exiting right fucking now.”   
  
“Alright?  I mean...I’ll call you...?”   
  
“Don’t.”   
  
“No, no, I’ll call you!”  Zuko shouted at Katara’s back as she unlocked the bathroom door and ran out into the club.   
  
  
\--   
  
  
It was the morning after and nearly everyone was hungover.  Everyone besides Ty Lee.  How that girl managed to stay chipper 24/7 was a mystery Zuko did not feel compelled to solve.  Azula, Ty Lee, Mai, and he all wandered over to the local Waffle House around noon to try and function like normal humans, but it seemed like an impossible task.  Only after copious cups of coffee could they able to communicate in actual words, instead of grunts and gestures.     
  
Zuko picked at his food (3 waffles, 2 pieces of bacon, 1 soggy piece of toast) and tried to do a very simple task - asking the table if anyone had Katara’s phone number.  Only he managed to Zuko it up (Azula had made his name into a verb, meaning to ‘fuck up drastically, mess up completely, act like a dumbass, or essentially be Zuko,’ according to her definition).  He asked for her number in the following way:    
  
“Hey...so do any of you have Katara, you know Katara, right?  That girl...with the Avatar.  I know you know her, I mean, obviously, you all know her!  So yeah...just wondering if you had her phone number.  I mean, I need to ask her something about...the Avatar.  If he’s alive.  After partying.  You know, just to see if he’s not dropped dead from getting drunk for the first time.  I’m going to text her.  To say hi.  No, I mean to ask about the Avatar.  So.  Her number?”   
  
Blank expressions stared at him.  Then Azula’s face turned into a homicidal grin, one that he wasn’t used to any longer - she looked at Ty Lee that way late at night, when they were drunk and or high and she thought no one else was watching the two of them.  But not in broad daylight and not looking at Zuko.  “So you want her number...to talk to her, Zuzu?”     
  
“Yes, Azula.  That is the point of a phone, isn’t it?”   
  
“Right.”  Azula suddenly deflated for some reason.  Ty Lee spoke instead.  “Azula has her phone right here and you’ve got Katara’s number, don’t you, ‘Zula?”     
  
Azula looked at Ty Lee sharply.  “I told you not to call me that in public,” she said in what she considered a whisper.    
  
Ty Lee merely shrugged her shoulders.  “No cares, do they?  Mai, Zuko?”     
  
Mai popped another hashbrown in her mouth and said dryly, “No.  No one cares at all.”     
  
Zuko quickly nodded his head to indicate, no, he definitely did not care what Ty Lee and Azula called each other during their times of...sexual...No.  Zuko did not care.   
  
Luckily, Ty Lee interrupted his thoughts.  “I texted you her number, Zuko.”   
  
  
\--   
  
  
1:28 PM Zuko   
Sry for yesterday & my issues - Z   
  
1:54 PM Katara   
How did you get this number   
  
1:55 PM Zuko   
Azula & TL had it. I did tell u i’d get ur # & call u - Z   
  
2:35 PM Katara   
u r such a db   
  
2:36 PM Zuko   
what is a db - Z   
  
2:39 PM Katara   
DUMB BITCH ZUKO    
  
2:40 PM Zuko   
oh....sorry about that 2 - Z   
  
2:49 PM Katara   
I KNOW ITS YOU, STOP SIGNING OFF WITH A FUCKING Z    
  
2:50 PM Zuko   
oh...sorry about that   
  
3:45 PM Zuko   
katara?     
  
4:33 PM Zuko   
katara????   
  
5:14 PM Zuko   
katara???????   
  
5:15 PM Katara   
WHAT   
  
5:16 PM Zuko   
oh, i just wanted 2 c if u were ok   
  
5:17 PM Zuko   
also do u wanna meet up l8r tom?   
  
5:19 PM Zuko   
like near that coffee place across from the club that we   
  
5:20 PM Zuko   
met at not had sex at i mean so coffee?   
  
6:07 PM Katara   
why do you want to meet 4 coffee   
  
6:09 PM Zuko   
just 2 talk   
  
6:46 PM Katara   
fine see you @ 4 tom   
  
6:47 PM Zuko   
great!!!!!  bye!!!!! - Z   
  
  
\--   
  
  
“So, the other night was nice.” Zuko said tentatively, looking at Katara carefully as he spoke.     
  
Katara rolled her eyes.  She was tempted to waterbend her coffee into his face but that would leave another scar.  Ah.  She wasn’t usually this cruel.  But Zuko had a tendency to be so incredibly dumb around her that she couldn’t even help herself with wanting to burn the other side of his face off.  Oh, that was too mean.  Even for her.   
  
She realized Zuko was waiting for a reply.  Katara managed a “Mm,” as she took another sip of her black coffee.  Zuko had put more cream and sugar than coffee in his own cup - there were several half-opened sugar packets on the table with little splatters of cream near the center of their table; Zuko had tried to grab a few napkins to clean up the mess, but instead had broken the napkin holder in the process.  If it had been anyone else, she’d probably find the whole mess endearing.  But this was Zuko.  Boy she almost had sex with but who couldn’t even get it up for her to actually have sex with.  Boy who almost wiped out her kind.  Boy who ended every text with a ‘Z.’  This dumb  boy .     
  
Zuko abruptly leaned into Katara, who hadn’t been paying attention to a word he was saying beforehand.  “Listen, so I know the other night was...weird.  I don’t really remember too much but I remember the bathroom and then...not doing anything.”   
  
“I remember that part too,” said Katara, pointedly.     
  
“Right.”  Zuko said, looking somewhat ashamed.  “I know we’re not friends, not really.  But maybe, we could be?”  He looked at her hopefully.  “Not like...best friends or whatever.  I mean.  I’m sure you have a best friend already.  Obviously.  I just mean, if I text you, you could answer.  If you want.”   
  
“Maybe.”  Katara said, considering the possibilities of Zuko, A Friend.  “But you can’t keep Zuko-ing things up.”     
  
Zuko let out an unexpected laugh.  “Have you been talking to my sister?”   
  
Katara smiled.  “Should I?”   
  
His eyes widened and he said quickly, “No, no, she’ll have you doing acrobatics at night or something.”   
  
“Zuko, I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”  Katara said, rolling her eyes again at him, but laughing as she spoke.   
  
“I usually don’t either, actually.”   
  
They were silent for a moment.  Then --   
  
“Do you really think I’m a ‘dumb bitch’?”   
  
“Yes.  I do.”   
  
“Oh.”  He sounded crestfallen.   
  
Katara put her hand on top of his in the middle of the table, surrounded by the drops of cream and bits of sugar Zuko had dropped.  She said, “Zuko, being a dumb bitch is a good thing, sometimes.”  And she smiled at him.     
  
He smiled back.  


End file.
